Jiang Xuening wasn’t foolish. Teasing people required knowing one’s limits, especially when dealing with Xie Wei. Though she felt this person’s attitude toward her was not quite the same as she had imagined, she didn’t dare to be too presumptuous because of it. After all, she didn’t know where Xie Wei’s boundaries lay.
So she obediently agreed, saying she would never dare again.
Xie Wei truly didn’t hold it against her. He only walked unhurriedly ahead of her back to Fengchen Hall.
Three days ago, everyone had watched Jiang Xuening anger Xie Wei through her foolish qin playing and be kept after class. Now seeing her return with a meek and submissive appearance following behind Xie Wei, it was like eating ice on a sweltering summer day—inexplicably satisfying throughout their bodies.
Remember how proud she was when acting arrogantly?
She had Yan Lin protecting her and the Grand Princess defending her, but she couldn’t withstand this Teacher Xie, who was the current Imperial Tutor—a figure even the Grand Princess dared not offend. No matter how capable Jiang Xuening was, if she couldn’t play the qin well, wouldn’t she still be disciplined into complete submission by Tutor Xie?
Even Grand Princess Leyang couldn’t help but feel a guilty sympathy: she knew Teacher Xie was a rigorous person when it came to scholarship and would absolutely not show favoritism to anyone. With Ningning being singled out by him to study the qin, who knew how severely Teacher Xie would treat her and how miserably she would fare.
But she was powerless to do anything about it.
At this moment, she thought to herself: It’s alright, it’s alright. I’ll just be better to Ningning in the future and make it up to her!
Jiang Xuening walked in from outside holding her qin, initially unaware of what these people were thinking.
But when Xie Wei had her play one note on the qin and immediately told her to stop, then sit aside to calm her mind and not play again, she swept her gaze across everyone’s expressions and suddenly understood somewhat—this group all thought she was having a miserable time at Xie Wei’s place?
Until class ended, she didn’t dare touch the qin even once.
When it was over, Xie Wei walked past her, looking down at her as usual. Without any of the peace and patience from the side hall earlier, he said with particular coldness: “In learning the qin, one must avoid impatience, calm the mind, and practice diligently. You possess none of these three qualities. Starting tomorrow, go to the side hall daily to practice the qin on your own. If you can’t learn well, then don’t stay.”
Jiang Xuening was dumbstruck.
How could this person Xie Wei change faces faster than flipping through a book?
She inexplicably had an impulse to slap the desk and rise in protest. However, looking up, she met Xie Wei’s smiling eyes and froze for a moment, not reacting in time. But Xie Wei left these words without saying anything more and directly carried his qin out of the hall.
Only after seeing him leave did the others in the hall start discussing amongst themselves.
Grand Princess Leyang walked to Jiang Xuening’s side filled with righteous indignation and said: “Teacher Xie’s demands are too harsh! How can he speak to you like that?”
Zhou Baoying also puffed her cheeks and nodded: “Yes, poor Sister Ning. When we first learned the qin, we all went from not knowing to knowing. Teacher Xie is so excessive…”
Even Yao Rongrong’s expression as she looked at her carried some sympathy.
As for You Yue, Chen Shuyi, and the others, though their malice hadn’t been removed and there was still some sarcasm and ridicule, when they looked at Jiang Xuening, they no longer had that feeling of seeing a thorn in their eye or flesh, jealous to the bone.
They seemed to have found a sense of superiority from this matter.
So occasionally their gazes toward her carried a kind of condescending contempt, even often with a joke-like hypocritical sympathy. They no longer avoided her when speaking, but said things in a roundabout way in front of her, essentially bringing previously covert matters into the open.
This continued for several days.
Jiang Xuening discovered that although she was occasionally jabbed at by others, and still had irreconcilable conflicts with several of them, being pitied and sympathized with by several others actually allowed her to integrate into the group through a strange set of circumstances.
So she suddenly learned something.
Ginger is spicier when old.
Foxes surnamed Xie are still more cunning.
Taking a step back, making people think her circumstances were miserable—though hatred couldn’t be eliminated, it could make those who had been targeting and hostile to her everywhere relax their guard, and could even make those who had been neutral draw closer to her out of sympathy.
Truly worthy of someone who could rebel in the future…
Playing with people’s hearts in the palm of his hand without leaving a trace.
So on this day, sitting across from the tea table, drinking tea personally brewed by Xie Wei, Jiang Xuening felt that the fact that she was actually getting along quite well at Xie Wei’s place was better left untold to them.
Yan Lin indulged her, Shen Zhiyi doted on her.
Though both were good to her, they also easily pushed her to the forefront of the storm. Xie Wei openly suppressing her, being harsh with her, treating her badly—this instead dissolved others’ hostility toward her.
After that day, Chief Compiler of the National History Bureau Zhang Zhong never appeared at Fengchen Hall again.
According to the little eunuchs’ discussions, he had retired to his hometown.
Teaching the Book of Rites was now a new teacher surnamed Chen, called “Chen Chou.” He taught them the book properly, neither flattering those above nor bullying those below. Perhaps because Zhang Zhong served as a cautionary tale, he was especially patient with them, answering every question and resolving every confusion.
As for the Teacher Zhao Yanhong who taught the Book of Songs and constantly praised Xiao Shu, he also fell into misfortune after just a few days.
The cause was that he had assigned homework, asking them to write a five-character poem for him to review.
After class, Jiang Xuening went to Xie Wei’s place to learn the qin. As usual, her mind wasn’t calm. When Xie Wei had her sit beside the qin, she couldn’t help but worry about that five-character poem while dazing off.
Xie Wei then asked her what she was worrying about.
She spoke about learning poetry, saying: “Teacher Zhao’s scholarship is certainly good, but he doesn’t praise others’ work even a bit. Though I don’t like Chen Shuyi, her poetry and calligraphy really aren’t necessarily inferior to Xiao Shu’s. In Teacher Zhao’s eyes, only Xiao Shu is excellent, with the Grand Princess ranking second. Others are just wildflowers and weeds that don’t count. I at most read some essays. I don’t like playing the qin and can’t compose poetry. Teacher Zhao already looks down on me. When I reluctantly write something, I’m afraid I’ll just make a fool of myself…”
Xie Wei glanced at her and didn’t speak.
Jiang Xuening then came to her senses: “I’m not tattling, nor am I trying to badmouth Teacher Zhao. Didn’t you ask me yourself?”
Xie Wei inexplicably laughed.
He was holding a plane to shave a block of beech wood he’d selected for making a qin. After laughing, he put down both the wood and plane. After a moment’s consideration, he walked over to pick up the paperweight on the desk, flipped through the few pages of Chengxin Hall paper that had been pressed under it, extracted one to look at for a moment, then handed it to Jiang Xuening, saying: “Take these few lines and copy them. Just say you wrote them yourself, and then see what Teacher Zhao says.”
Taking that page of Chengxin Hall paper, the moment she saw those four lines of poetry, only four words floated through Jiang Xuening’s mind from when You Fangyin had joked with her in the previous life: entrapment by fishing.
Of course, she didn’t dare say these words to Xie Wei.
Moreover, even if she said them, Xie Wei might not necessarily understand.
So she properly received this poem and a few days later in class used it to trap Zhao Yanhong.
That Zhao Yanhong also didn’t know the inside story of Chief Compiler Zhang Zhong’s misfortune at the National History Bureau. Seeing the poem Jiang Xuening had copied, he only glanced twice before saying: “What use is just rhyming? Complete nonsense. Especially the line ‘Empty mountain cannot distinguish flowers’—incomprehensible. The previous line is still on an empty mountain, and in the blink of an eye it’s ‘one courtyard darkened.’ It does fit the theme with moon, mountain, flowers, clouds, and wind, but it’s also too crude!”
At that moment, Jiang Xuening felt sympathy for him.
Because Xie Wei was teaching qin right behind him and had arrived quite early that day. Sitting in the corner of the main hall drinking tea, he had heard these words perfectly. With a rather surprised expression, he suddenly said: “Teacher Zhao, may I have a look at this poem?”
The poem read:
The night moon bright as jade, empty mountain cannot distinguish flowers; Clouds come, one courtyard darkens; wind goes, a hundred branches lean.
Xie Wei looked at it without speaking.
Zhao Yanhong still didn’t know he’d gotten into trouble and asked: “What does Teacher Xie think?”
Xie Wei returned the manuscript, his expression strange: “I didn’t realize this poem was so crude and that terrible.”
Zhao Yanhong finally heard something wrong in his tone and added a trace of anxiety: “Your meaning is?”
“Oh.” Xie Wei had an appearance of being rather embarrassed. Hooking his slender index finger, he lightly tapped his straight nose bridge and smiled apologetically. “Teacher Zhao, forgive me. This poem was actually this humble one’s untalented playful composition from the past, carelessly scribbled together. It’s not fit for the table. How would I dare show off my meager skills before an expert or presume to judge arbitrarily?”
Zhao Yanhong was stunned on the spot.
But Xie Wei acted perfectly convincingly. His face straightened and he glanced at Jiang Xuening, saying: “I suppose when Second Miss Ning was studying the qin with me in the side hall, she saw it and casually ‘borrowed’ it?”
Afterward, she didn’t hear about how Xie Wei dealt with it.
She only heard people say that after returning, Zhao Yanhong couldn’t eat or sleep well. At night he sighed facing the lamp, during the day he was dazed when meeting people. The next day he requested to resign from teaching the Grand Princess and asked to be transferred to an external post. Not meeting a suitable vacancy, though he was a rank five Lecturer at the Hanlin Academy, he only managed to secure a rank six idle Chaofeng Lang position, yet he himself felt extraordinarily fortunate.
Jiang Xuening thought the matter had passed like that.
Unexpectedly, early this morning she heard Yao Xi, Chen Shuyi, and others discussing how His Majesty was pursuing this matter and had become furious. Starting from Zhang Zhong and Zhao Yanhong, a number of factional attachment matters were implicated, resulting in many people being dismissed from their posts, including the original Grand Academician. But Xie Wei was separately appointed as the new Grand Academician of the Hanlin Academy to purge improper practices.
Everyone said Teacher Xie was becoming increasingly prominent.
But Jiang Xuening felt this entire matter had been within Xie Wei’s calculations from start to finish. Even such small matters as the teachers lecturing at Fengchen Hall could be used to create opportunity, allowing him to rise another step in court. He truly couldn’t be underestimated.
Xie Wei sat at this end of the tea table. After the boiling water had steeped in the pot for a moment, he poured the water from the pot into the tea sea, then lifted the tea lid and sniffed the lingering fragrance on the lid. Looking up to see her mind wandering far away, he said flatly: “These past days I’ve been telling you to calm your mind. You haven’t learned even half a trick, but your skill at spacing out and letting your mind wander has grown increasingly profound. By now I’m beginning to suspect that inside Second Miss Ning’s bundle of cotton wadding, there might be some gold and jade hidden. What foolish thoughts are you having now?”
Only then did Jiang Xuening return to her senses.
She actually felt that these past days, sitting still for an hour in the main hall and sitting still for an hour in the side hall—originally when sitting down she couldn’t help but feel extremely restless, but now being able to sit down and start letting her mind wander far away—was already a kind of substantial progress.
But she didn’t dare talk back to Xie Wei.
She muttered: “Teacher Xie has been promoted, becoming Grand Academician—even more impressive than my father. This student is happy for you.”
Her mouth had been quite sweet these past days.
But for Xie Wei, this matter wasn’t as simple as it appeared on the surface.
Using these several teachers lecturing to Grand Princess Leyang at Fengchen Hall to purge the Hanlin Academy was truly forced by circumstances. Even if done without leaving a trace, once noticed by someone with ulterior motives, it would inevitably seem like he was calculating and eager for quick success.
It was truly done out of necessity.
If he had time, he could have done it more seamlessly. But as the jade ruyi case was being investigated more and more closely, a storm of blood and wind would arrive any day now. If he didn’t grasp some real authority, how could he know he wouldn’t lose control of the overall situation?
Xie Wei didn’t explain, only lowered his eyelids and said: “The palace has regulations for paper use, with quite a few taboos. The Internal Affairs Bureau sends you Bingyi paper and White Deer paper. But the page I gave you the other day was Chengxin Hall paper stored in the palace. Tomorrow when you come, remember to bring it back to return it to me, lest someone see it and cause trouble.”
He even paid attention to such small details—wasn’t he afraid that worrying too much would make him bald in the future?
However, Jiang Xuening also knew that every word and action in the palace required caution. Inwardly complaining was one thing, but she did take this matter to heart.
After drinking tea, an unfamiliar little eunuch came from outside to deliver a gazette to Xie Wei.
Seeing that the eunuch seemed to have something to say, she bowed to take leave of Xie Wei and left the side hall.
On her way back to Yangzhi Studio, she only saw people from the Office of Punishment dragging several gagged eunuchs past from the direction of the inner palace. Each bore injuries, barely alive. One look showed they had suffered torture, and she didn’t know how they would be dealt with.
Jiang Xuening didn’t dare look further and walked past with her head lowered along the base of the palace wall.
The atmosphere of an approaching storm suddenly enveloped the entire palace.
But she thought that Yangzhi Studio housed only study companions who should have no connection to the ruyi case.
Who would have known that this very evening, when everyone was sitting in the Liushui Pavilion reviewing their books, a eunuch holding a whisk with a cold face actually led a large group barging into Yangzhi Studio. With a wave of his hand he said: “Search carefully for this father-in-law!”
Most of the study companions had never seen such a frightening scene and were momentarily panic-stricken.
Jiang Xuening was also extremely surprised.
She didn’t remember anyone coming to search Yangzhi Studio during the ruyi case in her previous life.
It was still Xiao Shu who appeared relatively composed—perhaps because her aunt was the Empress Dowager, she had particularly strong backing. She only asked that eunuch: “May I ask, Eunuch, what has happened and what are you searching for?”
That eunuch was Wang Quan, the newly appointed Chief Eunuch of the Inner Palace.
He was respectful toward Xiao Shu, returning the courtesy and smiling as he said: “I imagine all the study companions have heard the rumors. A few days ago, someone in the Internal Affairs Bureau dared to carve treasonous words on the jade ruyi presented to the Empress Dowager, provoking His Majesty’s great fury. These past days, investigations have continued, cleaning out quite a few people. But who knows how much filth hides in the palace? This Yangzhi Studio is also a residence within the palace. This father-in-law, following His Majesty’s oral decree and the Empress Dowager’s edict, is merely conducting a routine search. Please don’t be alarmed, everyone.”
Though he said this, the group he brought showed no courtesy when searching.
Every bottle and jar was turned completely upside down.
All books and writings had to be examined one by one.
Seeing this scene, Jiang Xuening’s eyelid twitched. She suddenly remembered that page of Chengxin Hall paper was still pressed in her box and couldn’t help but worry somewhat.
Before long, everyone’s rooms had been searched.
Most reported no problems.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, thinking this case was just a routine search.
But just as they had set their hearts at ease, a searching eunuch hurriedly walked over from the corridor, holding a page of paper in his hands. He handed it to Wang Quan, then leaned close to his ear and said something in a low voice.
Upon seeing what was written on that page, Wang Quan said: “Well now!”
He raised his head to scan everyone and only asked: “Which one is the daughter of Minister Jiang’s household?”
All eyes instantly fell on Jiang Xuening.
From this distance, Jiang Xuening couldn’t see clearly what the eunuch was holding. She only assumed it was that page of Chengxin Hall paper Xie Wei had given her earlier and thought that what should come couldn’t be avoided—it would take some effort to explain.
So she stepped forward and replied: “I am.”
That Wang Quan looked her up and down twice and sneered coldly: “Such audacity, daring to act and take responsibility! Someone, arrest this rebel for this father-in-law!”
Rebel?!
Jiang Xuening’s pupils contracted sharply. Before she could react, the little eunuchs on both sides had already pressed forward and twisted her arms.
She couldn’t believe it: “Eunuch, you’re slandering me—how has this subject daughter become a rebel!”
Wang Quan only flipped that page toward her.
Where was Xie Wei’s page of Chengxin Hall paper?
It was a page of White Deer paper, as common as could be in the palace. On it, written in brush, were two lines: Three hundred righteous children, what was their guilt in such tragic death? The mediocre emperor lacks virtue—dare he call himself Son of Heaven!
In that moment, Jiang Xuening felt cold throughout her body.
In Yangzhi Studio, shadows flickered everywhere, lamps blazing brightly.
She turned her face, looking at the others who had once been study companions with her and now stood here together. She actually felt the lanterns carried by those searching eunuchs were too dazzling. Shining on their faces, everything became a blur, making it impossible for her to see clearly.